Honestly, we probably played as well as we could.

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Sparlimb

Sparlimb

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I must admit I'm wrong. Kill is going to fit in just fine around here. Defense played excellent in the first half and the offense couldn't get the job done. Curious play calling all day long killed us. The fake field goal may have been the worst call of all. Nelson was open, but he either needs the ball immediately, or needs to run down the field for a td throw. I'm definately jealous of Michigan. You can play your 3rd string QB, play like *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# most of the game and still win by 25+.
 


What could we have done better? I think that's the best we had...
 

Sparlimb said:
What could we have done better? I think that's the best we had...
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Complete some of the passes down field. Last week Nelson was pretty accurate, this week not so much.

Make plays on defense. Stoudermire should have picked the pass that Michigan caught to set up their 4th TD. Also if Stoudermire makes the tackle on 3rd and goal on the same drive, Michigan kicks a FG.

Eliminate stupid penalties, although a few were pretty bad calls.

That's just a few things that come to mind right now. We certainly can play better than we did in my opinion.
 

I will say this...

I'm not mad at this game... it was a*LOT* close then the box score...

A lot of breaks went Michigan's way & the Defense played solid despite the score... the Offense just couldn't capitalize on good Field Position all game...
 


thailleagle said:
I will say this...

I'm not mad at this game... it was a*LOT* close then the box score...

A lot of breaks went Michigan's way & the Defense played solid despite the score... the Offense just couldn't capitalize on good Field Position all game...
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We lose by 22 but it was closer then what the box score said? That doesn't make any sense.
 

thailleagle said:
I will say this...

I'm not mad at this game... it was a*LOT* close then the box score...

A lot of breaks went Michigan's way & the Defense played solid despite the score... the Offense just couldn't capitalize on good Field Position all game...
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I did look at my son at one point and say every 50/50 play went Michigan's way today. Every single one. What that says to me is they just are superior athletes and wanted it more. We stayed with them for a while, but 13 points isn't going to beat anyone.
 

Sparlimb said:
We stayed with them for a while, but 13 points isn't going to beat anyone.
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The reason we had only 13 points is primarily on the coaches and the players. The Gopher coaching staff didn't have a good game today. They let down their players as well as the fans.
 




No chance, we left some plays out there today against a beatable team.
 

I agree we played well. The fake field goal was maybe questionable but if he completes that Nelson is gone. That's the risk of a back up punter throwing the ball. With all fakes your a genius if it works or a goat if it doesn't.

3 big plays killed us. 1) chop block on our early drive 2) bogus PI call in the endzone 3) Gardner scramble and throw for long TD
The encouraging thing about number 3 is we didn't let that happen again. There were many repeats of that under Brewster and whatever D coordinator we had.

GophersinIowa- Nelson faced a better secondary than he did a week ago.

Sparlimb- I wouldn't call Gardner a 3rd stringer. He was recruited to compete with Robinson by Rich Rod and was #2 last year. He also practiced as #1 all week.
 

patrick08 said:
I agree we played well. The fake field goal was maybe questionable but if he completes that Nelson is gone. That's the risk of a back up punter throwing the ball. With all fakes your a genius if it works or a goat if it doesn't.
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He did complete it.
 




Go4Broke said:
The reason we had only 13 points is primarily on the coaches and the players.
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Thank you for clearing that up. I was feeling guilty about not doing my share.
 

patrick08 said:
sorry executes right it by leading him and not throwing it behind him and giving Michigan time to recover.
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I agree with you. If the pass was on the money he might have converted. We had our kicker throwing the ball though. 9 times out of 10, it's not going to be a perfect pass. It was a huge, unnecessary risk at the time.
 




lakesgopher said:
I'm watching the replay right now, unless Nelson runs a 2 second 40 he is not making a first down on a perfect throw
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Problem was he had to go like 12 yards. That was a good call on 4th and 4. Not on where we were with the score the way it was.
 

Here is where I will backpedal a bit. I shouldn't have said gone but at least give him a chance to make a play. The bigger issue is why do teams put the ball in the hands of the holders? In our case it is a backup punter. I realize if Nelson or Gray all of the sudden come out there would be no element of surprise, but c'mon back up punter? Still I stand by my previous statement "With all fakes your a genius if it works or a goat if it doesn't. " Again maybe not the best call, but it didn't loose the game for us.
 

Our safeties gave Michigan 14 points today. Allowing the WR to get behind you and score a touchdown on a basic hail mary is unacceptable. Stoudemire not getting the ball or knocking it down at the 2 yard line is unacceptable. Those two blown plays resulted in 14 points. This game could easily have been a nail biter down to the wire had we not given up those two big plays that were easily preventable.

The fact is that Michigan is a better team than the Gophers, but we certainly had our chances to make this one close rather than lose by 22.
 

patrick08 said:
GophersinIowa- Nelson faced a better secondary than he did a week ago.
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I agree, but that still doesn't change the fact that he missed on some guys that were open down field. I'm not blaming Nelson for the loss or anything. The blame should be spread around to a lot of people, including the coaches.

I was just bringing up a few examples of things we could have done better. Nelson hit those guys last week, just didn't this week.
 

I think we will beat Illinois next Saturday and become bowl eligible. Before the season started I wanted to see at least a 6-6 record and a bowl game this year. After a 3-9 season last year I think we are moving forward.
 

I do not agree that we played as well as we could. The false starts are avoidable. And we got some very questionable efforts out of Gray and Stoudermire. I don't think that if we play a great game we beat them, but we could have done better.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I agree, but that still doesn't change the fact that he missed on some guys that were open down field. I'm not blaming Nelson for the loss or anything. The blame should be spread around to a lot of people, including the coaches.

I was just bringing up a few examples of things we could have done better. Nelson hit those guys last week, just didn't this week.
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I actually thought two of those inaccurate deep passes were Fruechte's fault. He wasn't getting his head turned around quick enough and therefore couldn't adjust to the ball. I'm not making an excuse for Nelson, but if that was AJ Barker, I think those passes look good.

I actually thought Gray didn't run one of the fades very well. It looked like he slowed up a bit and then Nelson "overthrew him".

I could be wrong, I only saw it once, but I am really confident that at least 1 of those long passes to Fruechte was Fruechte's fault.
 

I thought we played really hard and it's clear that our talent level is much higher than last year. We were actually giving Michigan fits up front and really minimized Michigan's running game (until the 4th and 1 game ender). We also were really close on a couple other plays (Stoudermire should have had a pick, the bomb to tie the game, etc.) It also seemed like most of the close calls went Michigan's way. I'm not making an excuse, but it just seemed this way.

I also thought that Michigan's QB played really well at times. He made a couple really good throws and good players make good plays.

We had a chance today because we played hard and we are more talented. However, our execution wasn't great, we had some failed gambles, and Michigan made more plays than us. I don't come out of this game feeling bad the future of the program.
 

Sparlimb said:
I must admit I'm wrong. Kill is going to fit in just fine around here. Defense played excellent in the first half and the offense couldn't get the job done. Curious play calling all day long killed us. The fake field goal may have been the worst call of all. Nelson was open, but he either needs the ball immediately, or needs to run down the field for a td throw. I'm definately jealous of Michigan. You can play your 3rd string QB, play like *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# most of the game and still win by 25+.
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that isn't a fair was to put it. he was not their 3rd string QB. in reality he is the 2nd string QB and he was a 5-star QB recruit who just got stuck behind robinson. had been playing at WR the last year. sound familiar?
 

supadupafly said:
that isn't a fair was to put it. he was not their 3rd string QB. in reality he is the 2nd string QB and he was a 5-star QB recruit who just got stuck behind robinson. had been playing at WR the last year. sound familiar?
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Yeah, it'd be like calling Nelson our 3rd string QB. He obviously jumped the backup on the depth chart.
 


Go4Broke said:
The reason we had only 13 points is primarily on the coaches and the players. The Gopher coaching staff didn't have a good game today. They let down their players as well as the fans.
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Now there is a 100% fact. primarily??? Who else would it be on?
 

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